HYSOTIB · Global dynamics of hydro-sociality in river heritage landscapes of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-03-01 → 2024-02-11
- EU contribution
- €251,354
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Global dynamics of hydro-sociality in river heritage landscapes of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.
HYSOTIB is a study of hydro-social dynamics in the Upper Yangtze river conservancy area, which is part of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau's "Three-river source" (together with the Mekong and Yellow rivers). The project was originally intended to be an ethnographic research conducted on-site; however, because of the COVID-19 epidemic and related border restrictions, this was not possible. As a result, HYSOTIB was transformed into a geo-historical research using Western, Chinese, and Tibetan literary and cartographic materials, as well as ethnographic data gathered by the principal investigator prior to 2020. The research focuses on human mobility along a non-navigable section of the Upper Yangtze and the main trade corridors on the Sino-Tibetan border in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In doing so, HYSOTIB explores the Three-river source as an important river heritage landscape in China within the context of global heritage and water challenges.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Global water challenges call urgently today for additional and deeper research by social scientists in order to achieve sustainability. By combining methods of geo-morphology and anthropology, HYSOTIB will provide an in-depth ethnographic study of one of the globe’s key river heritage landscapes – the China’s Qinghai Headwaters including the sources of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers. The on-going transformation of the the Qinghai headwaters into a national park hinges on a profound socio-ecological paradox, where the locals (97% ethnic Tibetan) are considered by Chinese authorities as both drivers of environmental impact as well as central to local natural and cultural heritage preservation practices. HYSOTIB will disentagle the underlying dynamics of this phenomenon by investigating socio-cultural and environmental issues, thus bridging the still huge scientific gap between heritage- and water/river studies. The primary fieldwork will take place at the upper reaches of the Yangtze river in the Yushu Tibetan Prefecture (Qinghai Province). Selected case-study areas from the Three-River Source National Nature Reserve will be examined as hydro-social contexts of global encounters arising within defined ecological, ethnic and territorial boundaries. Thanks to the researcher’s knowledge in Tibetan and Chinese language, and her previous fieldwork experience in Tibetan areas of China, HYSOTIB will provide a timely and improved understanding of the global context. Urgent environmental and anthropic risks, currently at the core of the EU-China 2020 Strategic Cooperation Agenda, will be addressed. The training in river science and heritage studies at the universities of Auckland (NZ) and Ca’ Foscari in Venice (IT) will significantly cement the candidate’s status as a leading geo-social scientist.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA · VeneziaCoordinatorItaly
- THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND · AucklandNew Zealand
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union